Kiss and Miss
by MimixIshidax
Summary: When Misty finds Ash in a more than questionable position, she assumes the worse. Pokeshipping fluff.


**Title: **_Kiss and Miss_  
**Disclaimer:** If I owned Pokemon, would Dawn even exist?  
**Summary: **When Misty finds Ash in a more than questionable position, she assumes the worst.

-x-

A brunette and a redhead sit side by side on a wooden bridge, their feet overlooking the river below. "He does like you, you know." It's a consolation coming from the brunette.

"Right." The redhead snorts, "Because a boy always proves that he likes a girl by kissing another girl in front of her face." She rolls her eyes and looks away, mostly so her unshed tears will leave undetected.

"Oh, Misty. I'm sure if you stuck around to ask he would…" But May didn't have much of an explanation, the boy in question, Ash Ketchum, had really messed up this time.

Finally Misty turns her face towards her friend; her eyes usually cross between green and blue, now a deep shade of cobalt. "He came to _my_ town, _my _gym, just to rub my nose in the fact that he's got a new girlfriend!" She demands, her voice constricted with emotion. "What is he trying to prove, that this new girl is prettier than me? She's better to travel with? He'd rather—

"Mist, you know as well as I do Ash isn't like that." May interrupts. She just couldn't understand why Ash, who had sounded so excited over the phone to visit Misty, would do something _so _hurtful.

Because even if he's as thick as everyone believes him to be when it comes to matters of the heart, even he had to know that there was a time and place for everything. If this new girl really is his girlfriend, he could've introduced her to Misty before making out in the doorway of the Cerulean City Gym.

Misty shakes her head bitterly. "I don't know him at all, May." She answers.

"Misty, he's always liked you. He's liked you since I can even remember, he…" May bites her lip in confusion.

Everyone Misty has ever met told her that she and Ash were meant to be. Team Rocket is convinced they're dating, Brock would never waste any time leaving the two of them alone, Melody from their adventure back on Shamudi sensed it from the second she met them and Rudi stepped aside so that Ash would step up. But never once did Ash ever say has any romantic feelings of any kind toward Misty and until he did, she wouldn't believe it.

"May, this is useless." Misty sighs. "I should get back to the gym. God knows what could happen if I leave it with Violet too long." She tries to laugh, but it comes out as a strangled cough.

May puts a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "Misty, I'm sure he has a good reason, I know that he—

"Look, I don't need anything from him. It's not like we were betrothed or anything." She shrugs. "I couldn't have expected him to be waiting forever and Dawn's really pretty." Misty runs a hand through her hair and looks towards the sky.

The sun would set soon; Misty wants to leave before it does.

"Misty, _you're_ really pretty." May says firmly. "And, Ash would wait for you forever."

"Yeah? Did you tell him that?" Misty asks sourly.

May frowns. "I'm sorry this happened, Mist." She says softly. "I know you were really looking forward to his visit." She says sympathetically.

Misty shakes her head. "Whatever, he's leaving for Pallet in two days." She reminds herself more than her friend. "And then things will be back to normal." And Misty is looking forward to _that_ more than anything.

"Where'd you tell him you were going anyway?" She asks.

"I didn't. I just left." Misty says honestly.

May runs a hand over her face in clear exasperation. Between Ash's idiocy and Misty's impulsiveness, she really has her matchmaking work cut out for her. "Mist…you should've at least talked to him." She says, with as much empathy as she could.

"I can't talk about this anymore, May. Seriously." Misty put her hands on either side of her, feeling the smooth wood beneath her palms, and began to get up.

May sighs loudly, knowing that there's no arguing with Misty once she makes up her mind. "I still think you guys should talk about it." She says as Misty gets up.

Misty is just about to turn around and head in the other direction, when a shuffle of footsteps halts her in her place. "Did you hear that?" She looks down at May.

May nods, turning her head to the source of the noise.

A minute later, from the shrubbery of bushes, emerges a figure with black hair and a red hat. Ash Ketchum.

May has to do all she can to keep from squealing. Granted Ash doesn't look very debonair, in his faded blue jeans and black t-shirt and he isn't very white knight-like, picking twigs out of his hair. But the fact that he figured out he should talk to Misty, is a very big step in the right direction. All May wants to do now is hug the life out of the boy, simply because he's finally beginning to understand the workings of a girl.

Unlike May, the only thought in Misty's head is a dispute between causing Ash immense physical pain or simply scampering away. She wishes he'd never come to see her, granted it wouldn't change her feelings toward him, but they wouldn't be as raw as they are now. Seeing him kiss someone else broke her heart and now she just wants him to leave her alone. And if it's forever, then it'll be just fine with her.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" He asks, he feels awkward, Misty can tell because he's scratching the back of his neck.

May coughs quietly before jumping to her feet. "I'm gonna leave you two alone. It's great seeing you Ash." A quick hug to the black haired boy and May is gone faster than either of them think is possible.

At the moment, Misty really wishes May would've stayed. At least with a witness, she'd have more of an incentive to let Ash live. "Sure." She tries to be nonchalant and cool, when inside she's screaming the word "no".

"Wanna sit?" He gestures to the bridge Misty had just inhabited.

She shakes her head. "I'm fine." She crosses her arms over her chest.

Ash scratches his neck again. "So, you left pretty quickly." He notices, his eyes trained on her face.

It's been a while since he's last seen Misty, which was probably mostly his fault. But she looks different. Not in a bad way, at all though. Her hair is still the most vibrant orange he's ever seen but she's grown it to her shoulders, and her eyes still a mystery between green and blue. All though today, they are definitely blue. The cute freckles around her nose are slightly more prominent and he figures she's been training in the summer sun. Her complexion is tanner, again he attributes that to excessive solar exposure. She's a little taller, he thinks, but _he's_ finally a comfortable inch above her. And about time, he had grown tired of always looking up at her.

"Any ideas why?" Her voice breaks through his musings and he wonders if she caught him staring.

He sighs. "No."

"Come on Ash, wrack your brain!" Misty tries to keep her voice neutral but the fact that Ash doesn't think he did _anything _wrong infuriates her. "That should only take, oh, two seconds." She hisses.

Ash feels himself getting angry at her insults and forcibly reminds himself that this is just Misty. Tough on the outside but so vulnerable on the inside. And right now, by the look of her eyes, she's probably feeling incredibly helpless. "Help me out, Mist. I don't really know what I…" He trails off.

Misty stares away from him, a cascade of red shielding her face.

When Ash sees the slight, almost unnoticeable, slump of her shoulders his first impulse is to hug her. Hold her to his chest and hope that she'll be okay. Tell her nothing will hurt her _ever_ again. But he knows he can't do that, it would only make her madder. Especially since, he has a feeling he's the one that caused her pain in the first place.

He places a tentative hand on her shoulder, only to have it shrugged off a second later. "Why'd you come, Ash?" She asks, still not facing him. "Why now?"

He's taken aback by her question, he didn't think that his being herd would upset her. On the contrary, he'd been hoping she'd be elated. That she wanted to see him as much as he'd been dying to see her. "I…wanted to see you Mist." His voice is soft and a little confused.

Instead of making her feel better, Ash's conviction only makes Misty angrier. "Why? You didn't care when I left and aside from a few lousy letters, you didn't even remember that I was gone!" She's screaming now. "You visited Pallet _so_ many times and yet this is the _first_ time in three years you've come to see me! What is so _special_ now that it couldn't wait another three years!"

Her demands throw him off balance as he literally takes three steps back. "Misty, I called you, I wrote you and I even emailed you! You're the one that hardly _ever_ wrote back and after a while I just figured you didn't _want_ to hear from me!" He's yelling back, the emotions he'd repressed while training now resurfacing with a vengeance. "And yet I'm the one that didn't care! Me? When you were _always _the one that kept _me_ at arm's length, you never let me in, Misty! Ever!" Ash always resented her closed off nature and lack of actual communication. The fact that she could _never_ seem to let down her guard, positively drove him crazy.

"Ash, you always made me feel like you didn't want me around." Her voice is shaky at best, angry tears now flooding their way back into her brilliantly blue eyes. "I just…I never felt like you wanted me there." Want, the word reminds her why she's hurting in the first place. This isn't about her, it's about _him_.

"That isn't true! Misty I told you the day you were leaving that I…" Except he hadn't told her, he fell _just_ short of telling her the truth.

Misty shakes her head. "It doesn't matter now Ash." She says in defeat. "Look, the bottom line is all I ever really wanted was for you to be _happy_." It's honest and real. That's all she's ever wanted for him, and if it wasn't with her then there is nothing she can do about it.

"Of course it matter now, Mist. It's _always _going to matter." She'll always be the girl for him. It took him seven years to figure it out but god damn it, he knows it now.

Because three Pokémon leagues later, she's still the only one to shake his confidence. The only person who can make him question himself in the best possible way. The only person who he feels connected with on a level that he can't even begin to explain. "_You're _always going to matter, Misty." He boldly touches a strand of hair, tucking it behind her delicate ear.

When she doesn't break his wrist, Ash sees it as a good sign. "Ash, why are you doing this to me?" She whispers, looking into his eyes for the first time in _three years_. It's also the first time he's seen tears in her eyes. Honest to God tears. The pain in them is enough to break his heart.

"Doing what, Misty?" He feels like crying too, if only because she is. "What's wrong?" He's a little closer to her now, close enough for his scent of overwhelm her senses. That smell of clean clothes, a hint of aftershave and something she'd never been able to identify.

Misty pushes him away from her, it's heart wrenching but she does it. "You know what, Ash. If you think there's nothing wrong with what you did then there's nothing I can do." Her voice is cold and hard. "And if you honestly believe that you're right about this, then you're definitely not the guy I thought you were." The sun sets quietly around them, painting the sky vivid oranges and pink.

Under any other circumstance, the sight of a boy and girl standing under a sunset on bridge overlooking a beautiful river, would be construed as romantic. However, Ash and Misty were anything but at the moment.

Finally, something clicks inside Ash's brain. Something finally turns on and he finally thinks he understands. "This isn't about Dawn, is it?" He asks cautiously. But it's the why that Ash doesn't get. Because Misty's never been the jealous type and it's not as if Dawn's the first girl he's traveled with since Misty. In fact, May was now one of Misty's _best_ friends, so why should Dawn be any different?

Her name strikes a dark chord deep with in Misty's heart. Hearing Ash say it made her want to cry, kick and puke all at the same time. "I told you Ash, it really doesn't matter." She wraps her arms around herself, wishing a Zapdos would strike her now. Just so she wouldn't have to be here, with him.

Ash takes Misty by the upper arm, successfully surprising the crap out of her in the process "And I told _you_, Misty, your feelings matter to me." His voice is firm. "So what is it that you don't like about her?" He doesn't let go of her arm.

She tries to pull away but when his grip doesn't loosen, she feels herself getting angry all over again. "Let go of me, Ash." She says, her voice dangerously low. "Now."

"No." He's defiant and proud of it.

Misty glares at him. "I will _not_ hesitate to kick your favorite appendage." She warns.

It takes him a minute, but when Ash registers what she means, he lets go. "That was unnecessary." He says, wincing at her innuendo.

Misty rolls her eyes. "Whatever, Ketchum." She growls. "I just hope you know that if I had my Pokémon with me, I would've fed you to Gyrados fifteen minutes ago."

Ash has no doubt about that. And he silently thanks whatever forces are working for him because he really doesn't want to be Gyrados' dinner tonight. "Will you just tell me why you're so mad, so I can fix it!" He asks, pulling a hand through his untamable black hair in frustration. "Misty, I came all the way from—

"Yeah? Well who asked you to!" She interrupts loudly. "You went this long with out seeing me, I'm sure you could've gone the rest of your life!"

The rest of his life with out Misty, the thought alone is unfathomable for Ash. But then again, she's right, he did go so long with out seeing her. And as he stares at her, her chest heaving, her cheeks pink and her eyes fierce, he wonders how he could have.

In that moment, Ash isn't sure what comes over him. He knows he isn't thinking, he knows it isn't rational. It's impulse, it's primal, and it's innate. It's completely involuntary and totally unstoppable. It's his lips on hers and nothing's ever been better.

Ash's action put Misty in a state of shock. It all happens so quickly, she doesn't have any time to register his movements until he's kissing her. And it's because she feels that this might be the last time that she eventually kisses back. For a few seconds, maybe longer, she lets _everything_ go. Everything that isn't Ash. Everything that isn't her. Everything that isn't them.

But reality sets in and as it does, she pushes away from him, his chocolate brown eyes staring into her own, and the sound of their breathing the only noise in the otherwise silent night. The fog in her mind the kiss caused now thinning, Misty processes the fact that Ash actually _kissed _her. The fact that he did, enrages her and before she can stop herself, she rears her hand back and smacks him.

The sound echoes through the trees and resonates in her ears. "How could you?" She demands, her voice hoarse and unsteady.

With his palm to his cheek, Ash stares back at her, fire in his eyes. "How could I? Misty, you just _smacked _me!"

"Because you kissed me!" She screams. "What's wrong with you! What are you trying to prove? That you can get every girl you come in contact with to fall for you!" She hates him right now, she hates him more than she's ever hated anything.

Before Ash has a chance to answer her, she's yelling at him again. "Do you want me to call May, do you want to go three for three!" She laughs a mirthless laugh that sounds almost hysterical.

How could he be so thick? How could it have taken him so long to figure out that Misty had seen him. "Oh no. Mist…I'm really sorry you had to see that." Ash wishes he could be someone else, just so he could kick his own ass. "Misty, you really don't get it at all—

"No, Ash, I do. Okay?" She can't be here anymore, Misty knows that if she stays any longer she'll break down. "You don't owe _me_ anything." She shrugs a limp shoulder. "And I really don—

"Misty, can't you ever just shut up!" He cuts her off, seizing her arm and pulling her towards him. "Can I just finish what I'm saying for _once_?" She's flush against him now, she can feel his defined abdomen against her stomach and his breath on her neck.

Like a deer in headlights, Misty can't move. She can't think. Usually so rational, she can't formulate a single coherent thought. "I _don't_ like Dawn." His voice is hard with finality, as if all the evidence in the world couldn't change it.

"But you, but I saw, you were—" Misty sputters.

Ash chuckles, "Yeah, Dawn kissed me. I'm sorry you had to see it but it happened." Misty feels his lips centimeters from her forehead as he talks. "But she only did it because I was too chicken to kiss you." He admits unabashedly.

"What?"

Ash smiles, mostly because he's finally solved Misty's mystery. "The whole way here, all I did was talk about you." He tells her, his voice soft and soothing.

"You did?"

"Yeah, and Dawn, well she's perceptive." Ash lets out a laugh. "She figured that I must like you and devised a plan to help me, it obviously didn't work to well." His free hand scratches the back of his head.

Misty narrows her eyes up at him. "So this was all a ridiculous ploy to make me jealous?"

Ash shakes his head. "No, it was Dawn trying to assess my kissing ability." He answers honestly. "She said and I quote "if you're gonna kiss Misty, you better do it right. There are no do-overs, Ash" she just wanted make sure I wasn't a complete idiot." Ash knows he's laying all his cards on the table now, this time, he's hoping Misty can do the same.

"You don't like Dawn…" She breathes out, as if she can barely believe her ears.

"I do _not_ like Dawn." Ash reiterates.

Misty stares up, her eyes on his chin because she can't bring herself to look in his eyes. "And me?" She should know the answer to this question and she probably does, but Misty just wants to hear Ash say it.

Ash lightly touches her cheek. "Yeah, what about you?" He grins, the hand on that was on Misty's arm, now dropping to the small of her back.

"Is it me?" She wishes he wouldn't make this so hard, not when she's waited so long.

Ash's grin stays safely in place. "Is what you?" He knows he should probably just say it, what he's been dying to say. What she so desperately want to hear.

But what fun would that be?

"Ash…" Almost pleading now, Misty feels a little stupid. If she has to yank it out of him, like pulling teeth, then it isn't worth much.

He wants to leave her hanging just a bit longer, but decides against it. "It's always been you, Misty." Ash tucks a hand under her chin, carefully bringing her gaze to meet his. "And if you ever thought any differently then I'm sorry, and I'm sorry it took me so long to—

"I love you." This time, it's an interruption Ash welcomes. Her impatience making him the happiest guy in the world.

And just as he's about to dip his head, she reaches on her tip toes and presses her lips against his. This kiss just a little less innocent than the one before.

When they pull away, Ash brushes his thumb across her cheek. "I love you, Misty." He says for good measure.

This time, Misty just throws her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. "Ash." She says against his skin, as he feels tears leaking into his shirt.

Ash wraps his arms securely around her waist. "Misty, why are you crying?" He still marvels at the sentence he's just uttered, because Misty crying is something he never thought he'd witness. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

She pulls her face out of his neck and stares up at him. "I'm happy, doofus. That's why." She laughs through her tears.

The sound of her laughter causes Ash to smile. "Then don't cry, okay?" He requests. "You'll make me think I'm as bad a kisser as Dawn thought I'd be." He jokes.

Misty tries to hold back her laugh because the thought of Dawn and him kissing still repulses her. "Why'd you take so long to tell me this was all just a misunderstanding?" She shoves his shoulder as they begin to walk back.

Ash sighs, "Because I didn't know that's why you were mad." He admits sheepishly. "I guess I'm as oblivious as Brock says I am."

Misty pushes her slight annoyance away as she slips her hand into his slightly larger one. "You're an idiot." She says frankly. "But it's okay."

Ash presses a kiss to the side of her head. "And you're impossible." He counters. "But that's okay too."

-x-

**A/N**: My first Pokémon one-shot. Hope it was okay! Review to let me know how it was!

-Christina


End file.
